6 Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs

68 Handbook on the Working of Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs 6 CABINET COMMITTEE ON PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS BACKGROUND With the creation of a bicameral Parliament consisting of several representatives of the people, it was deemed desirable that the Cabinet should delegate the overall responsibility regarding detailed parliamentary matters to a small standing committee of the Cabinet, specialising in this task. A Parliamentary and Legal Affairs Committee was accordingly constituted in 1949. This committee was subsequently named as the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs. The then Department of Parliamentary Affairs and now Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs has been providing secretarial assistance to the committee since 1954. Prior to 1954, the Ministry of Law had been providing secretarial assistance to the committee though secretarial assistance in regard to planning of Government Business in both Houses of Parliament was even then provided by the then Department of Parliamentary Affairs. As per the First Schedule to the Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules, 1961, the following functions have been assigned to the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs: (i) To watch the progress of Government Business in Parliament and to give such directions as may be necessary from time to time, in order to secure smooth and efficient conduct of such business; (ii) to scrutinise, and to consider the attitude of the Government on non-official bills and resolutions to be presented to Parliament; (iii) to maintain a review from an all-India point of view of legislations undertaken by State legislatures; and Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs 69 (iv) to consider proposals to summon or prorogue the Houses of Parliament. Under Rule 6 of the above Rules, the Prime Minister may, from time to time, modify the functions assigned to the committee. The composition of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, as last notified, is as under:- 1. Minister of Defence - Chairman 2. Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution 3. Minister of Railways 4. Minister of Home Affairs 5. Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers and Minister of Steel 6. Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Minister of Urban Development 7. Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Minister of Shipping 8. Minister of Law & Justice Special Invitees 1. Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pension and Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs 2. Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence and Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs 3. Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office 4. Minister of State in the Ministry of Rural Development and Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs (Ministers other than members of the committee, who are concerned with the subject matter under discussion in the meetings of the committee, are also invited, if necessary, to attend such meetings of the committee) PROCESS The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs normally takes decisions on matters placed before it for consideration, through circulation of papers. However, whenever the Chairman 70 Handbook on the Working of Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs of the committee, who is normally the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, desires to convene a formal meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs for consideration of any issues related to functions assigned to it, action is taken by the Ministry to convene the meeting of the committee. The meetings of the committee are normally held during the session period, though there have been occasions when meetings have been held during inter-session period also. The venue of the meeting is either the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs’ Room in Parliament House or any place/room inside or outside Parliament House, convenient to him/her. As per records available in the Ministry, only thirty formal meetings of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, including four meetings during the tenure of the XIII Lok Sabha, have so far been held since 1978 (Annex VI-A). Except for these meetings, the decisions by the committee on various issues placed before it for consideration, were taken through circulation of papers. The process followed for taking action on four functions assigned to the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs has been dealt with in seriatim, as follows: To watch the progress of Government Business in Parliament and to give such directions as may be necessary from time to time, in order to secure smooth and efficient conduct of such business There have been very few occasions when the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs reviewed either in formal meetings or through circulation of papers, the progress of the Government Business in the two Houses. Earlier, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs had been meeting sometimes for this purpose, but for the last few years, it has hardly been meeting to review the progress of Government Business in the Houses. It will be interesting to note that during the term of the XIII Lok Sabha, the committee did not meet even once, either formally or through circulation of papers, for this purpose. As per records available with the Ministry (Annex VI-A), the committee held its first meeting to discuss the Government Business for the Winter Session, 1983, on 7 November, 1983. Since 1983, the committee has so far held only thirteen meetings to inter alia review the Government Business. Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs 71 This function now-a-days is normally taken care of by the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs himself/ herself. About a week before the commencement of every session of Parliament, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs or one of the Ministers of State for Parliamentary Affairs, if the Minister is not available on the proposed date of the meeting, takes a meeting with Secretaries/ senior officers of various Ministries/Departments to finalise the Tentative List of Legislative and other Business to be taken up in the two Houses during the ensuing session. Besides, the Minister also takes review meetings with Secretary/senior officers of the Ministry, as and when necessary, before commencement of the session and on an almost daily basis during the session period and gives such directions, as may be necessary, for expeditious and smooth disposal of pending and new Government Legislative and other Business in the two Houses. To scrutinise and to consider the attitude of the Government on Non-Official Bills and Resolutions to be presented to Parliament This is the most important function of the committee. The committee has held a maximum number of meetings, formally as well as through circulation of papers, for consideration of matters relating to Private Members’ Bills and Resolutions. Private Members’ Bills and Resolutions are taken up alternatively in the two Houses for two and a half hours on every Friday or any other day of the week during the session period as the Presiding Officer of the respective House may direct. If Private Members’ Bills are taken up in one week, then the Private Members’ Resolutions will be taken up during the next week and so on. Whenever the Private Members’ Bills/ Resolutions are listed for consideration in the two Houses, the Government has to take a stand on their subject matter with the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs. For this purpose, Ministries/Departments concerned are requested to furnish, with the approval of their Ministers, two copies of the ‘Note for Consideration of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs’, commonly called ‘Brief’, both in English and Hindi versions, indicating the Government’s stand on the Private Members’ Bills/Resolutions which have been listed for consideration in the two Houses for the day scheduled for such business (Ministries are requested to furnish two copies of 72 Handbook on the Working of Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs the brief in each version, if the approval of the committee on the Ministry’s proposal is to be taken through circulation of papers and thirty copies in each version, if there is a proposal to convene a formal meeting of the committee). The various stages at which the copies of the Brief are called from the Ministries/ Departments concerned can be seen in the following paras. As soon as the result of the ballot in respect of Private Members’ Bills to be taken up for consideration in the Lok Sabha on the days scheduled for Private Members’ Bills is notified in the Parliamentary Bulletin by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, a letter (Annex-VI-B) is addressed by the Secretary, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, to the Secretaries of the Ministries/ Departments concerned with the Bills which secure the first ten positions in the ballot, requesting them to send the requisite copies of the Brief (English and Hindi versions), if not already sent, to this Ministry for consideration/approval of the Government’s stand on such Bills by the committee. So far as the Private Members’ Resolutions in the Lok Sabha and the Private Members’ Bills and Resolutions in the Rajya Sabha are concerned, the names of Members, who have given notices for moving these items, are only balloted and the Members who secure the first few positions/places in the ballot are requested to intimate the title of the pending Bills/text of the Resolutions which they intend to move to the respective Parliament Secretariat so that such Bills/ Resolutions in their names could be listed for consideration in the Order Papers of the two Houses for the days specified for this purpose. As the Members furnish their replies in this regard when the List of Business is about to be sent to the Press for printing, no letter is addressed by the Secretary, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, after the results of the ballots in respect of Private Members’ Resolutions in the Lok Sabha and the Private Members’ Bills and Resolutions are notified by the Parliament Secretariat concerned.

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